Friday, December 10, 2010

RhoDeo 1010 Beats

Hello, it's been rather a busy week, originally when i restarted the plan was to post say 5 albums every week that was 10 weeks ago, this week it got rather out of hand with 17 titles, nevermind i suppose the space theme inspired me..smile... Today more space disco mainly Giorgo Moroder who's producing tech savy let him acquire a big piece of the music cake for more then a decade. On offer today a christian girl accidentally moaning herself to starstatus, one that she would greatly expand on with much more 'decent' work. The there's Moroder's production vehicle of the late seventies Music Machine.. uncomprimising disco tech and naturally with plenty of sexual innuendo..(wonder where all that has gone to, in these dark days). Then there's a rare best of his work, electronic dance music that preceded the rise of techno, house, and industrial noise, which bridges me nicely to my last space post the godfather of techno Juan Atkins in Deep Space as Model 500...

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

LaDonna Adrian Gaines known by her stage name, Donna Summer gained prominence and notoriety during the disco era of the 1970s with the majority of her early work produced by the team of Giorgio Moroder and Pete Belotte. She is a 5 time Grammy winner and has sold over 130 million records to date. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard chart and she had four number-one singles within a thirteen-month period.

Born on New Year's Eve 1948 in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Summer was one of seven children raised by devout Christian parents. Influenced by Mahalia Jackson, Summer began singing in the church at a young age. In her teens, she formed several musical groups including one with her sister and a cousin, imitating Motown girl groups such as The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas in Boston. Summer dropped out of school convinced that music was her way out of Boston, where she had always felt herself to be an outsider.

In 1968, Summer auditioned for a role in the Broadway musical, Hair. She lost the part of Sheila to Melba Moore. When the musical moved to Europe, Summer was offered the role. She took it and moved to Germany for several years. While in Germany, she participated in the musicals Godspell and Show Boat. After settling in Munich, she began performing in several ensembles including the Viennese Folk Opera and even sang as a member of the pop group FamilyTree - "invented" and created by the German music producer Guenter "Yogi" Lauke & the Munich Machine. She came to the group in 1973 and toured with the 11-people pop group throughout Europe. She also sang as a studio session singer and in theaters. In 1972, she married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer and gave birth to their daughter Mimi Sommer in 1973. Citing marital problems caused by Sommer's frequent absences, she divorced him but kept his last name, translated the "o" to a "u".

It was while singing background for the hit-making 1970s trio Three Dog Night that Summer met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. She eventually made a deal with the European label Groovy Records and issued her first album, Lady of the Night, in 1974. Though not a hit in America, the album found some European success on the strength of the song "The Hostage", which reached number one in France and Belgium and number two in the Netherlands.

In the summer of 1975, Summer approached Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte with an idea for a song. She had come up with the lyric "Love to love you, baby" as the possible title for the song. Moroder in particular was interested in developing the new disco sound that was becoming increasingly popular, and used Summer's idea to develop the song into an overtly sexual disco track. He had the idea that she should moan and groan orgasmically, but Summer was initially reticent. Eventually she agreed to record the song as a demo to give to someone else. She has stated that she was not completely sure of some of the lyrics, and parts of the song were improvised during the recording (she later stated on a VH1 Behind the Music program that she pictured herself as Marilyn Monroe acting out the part of someone in sexual ecstasy). Moroder was so astounded with Summer's orgasmic vocals and her imaginative moans and groans that he insisted she should release the single herself. Summer reluctantly agreed and the song, titled "Love to Love You", was released to modest success in Europe.

When it reached America and the hands of Casablanca president Neil Bogart, however, he was so ecstatic over the demo that he requested Moroder to produce a twenty-minute version of the song. Summer, Moroder and producer Pete Bellotte cut a seventeen-minute version, renamed it "Love to Love You Baby", and Casablanca signed Summer and issued it as a single in November 1975. Casablanca distributed Summer's work in the U.S. while other labels distributed it in different nations during this period. "Love to Love You Baby" was Summer's first big hit in America, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in early 1976 and becoming her first Number-One Hot Dance Club Play chart hit. The album (side one of which was completely taken up with the full-length version of the title track) was also released in late 1975 and was soon certified gold for sales of over 500,000 copies in the U.S. The song was branded "graphic" by some music critics and was even banned by some radio stations for its explicit content. Time Magazine later reported that a record twenty-two orgasms were simulated by Summer in the making of the song.

As a result the album sold very well, making the Top 20 in both the U.S. and the U.K. The other songs on the album had a more soul/R&B feel to them. Side two consisted of four more original songs, plus a reprise of one of them. Two of the songs, "Full of Emptiness" (which was taken from her previous album Lady of the Night) and "Whispering Waves" were ballads, while "Need-a-Man Blues" was in a slightly more pop/disco vein, and "Pandora's Box" was more mid-tempo.

This was Munich Machine's first solo album. It contains the hit singles from each of the albums that they worked on, as sort of a Greatest Hits. Only the songs have been reworked (by Giorgio and Pete) with breathy female vocals and a Battlestar Galactica (1970s version) type synthesizer which accompanies them. Synths & electronic disco has always played an important role in the Giorgio Moroder franchise, and this is a great example of his very early works, right soon after his Knights In White Satin album. Get On The Funk Train begins with an intro of "destination, funk" and further coaxes you with examples of various disco beats & jives which leads into the main dance song. GOTFT is really mainly instrumental with "get on the funk train" random chorus, but the instrumentals are as fine as Donna Summer's "Je Taime" or even her earlier works.The production quality of the album is amazing considering it's 33 years old. Moroder made two more albums under this moniker, A Whiter Shade Of Pale and Body Shine.

1 Get On The Funk Train (15:51)2 Love To Love You Baby (2:33)3 Trouble-Maker (2:48)4 Try Me, I Know We Can Make It (3:31)5 I Wanna Funk With You Tonite (3:33)6 Spring Affair (2:24)7 Love To Love You Baby (Reprise) (1:31)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder (born 26 April 1940, Gröden, Súd-Tirol (german speaking region of Italy) is a record producer, songwriter and performer. His work with synthesizers during the 1970s and 1980s had a significant influence on New Wave, house, techno and electronic music in general. Moroder made his first steps in music bypassing his native country altogether, and making a name for himself in studios around Germany in the early 1970s, although he released small-batch singles simply as "Giorgio" as early as 1966, singing in Italian, English and German. He first came to prominence in 1969, when his recording "Looky Looky", released on Ariola Records, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc in October 1970. Often collaborating with lyricist Pete Bellotte, Moroder had a number of hits in his own name including "Son of My Father" in 1972 before releasing the synthesizer-driven From Here to Eternity, a notable chartbuster in 1977, and in the following year releasing "Chase", the theme from the film Midnight Express. All were hits in the UK, in the U.S. and across Europe, and everywhere the disco-mania was spreading.

He founded the former Musicland Studios in Munich which was used as a recording studio for artists including Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Elton John. He also created his own record label, Oasis Records, which later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records. Moroder became particularly well known for his work with Donna Summer ("I Feel Love" and Love to Love You Baby), In addition Moroder also produced a number of electronic disco hits for The Three Degrees, two albums for Sparks, and a score of songs for a variety of others including David Bowie, Irene Cara, Blondie, Japan, and France Joli...-continued from yesterday-

Moroder also released three albums between 1977-1979 under the name Munich Machine (other producers involved were Pete Bellotte, Stefan Wissnet, Günther Moll) , Music Machine, A Wither Shade Of Pale (78) and Body Shine (79). The full movie score for Midnight Express won Moroder his first Academy Award for best film score in 1978. In 1979 Moroder released his album E=MC². Text on the album's cover stated that it was the "first electronic live-to-digital album."

In 1984, Moroder worked with Philip Oakey of The Human League to make the album Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder; which was a UK singles chart hit with "Together in Electric Dreams", title track to the 1984 movie Electric Dreams. In 1986, Moroder collaborated with his protege Harold Faltermeyer (of "Axel F." fame) and lyricist Tom Whitlock to create the score for the film Top Gun (1986), with the most noteworthy hit being Berlin's "Take My Breath Away". All Thru the eighties Moroder was very busy producing a wide range of artists besises Donna Summer.

Then there was his filmwork, Moroder won three Academy Awards: Best Original Score for Midnight Express (1978); Best Song for "Flashdance...What a Feeling", from the film Flashdance (1983); and Best Song for "Take My Breath Away", from Top Gun (1986). In 1984, Moroder compiled a new restoration and edit of the famous silent film Metropolis and provided a contemporary soundtrack to the film. This soundtrack includes pop tracks from Pat Benatar, Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, Billy Squier, Loverboy, Bonnie Tyler and Freddie Mercury. He also integrated the old-fashioned intertitles into the film as subtitles as a means of improving continuity, and he also played the film at a rate of 24 frames per second. Since the original speed was unknown this choice was controversial. Known as the "Moroder version", obviously this sparked debate among film buffs.He also scored other popular films in the 1970s and 1980s including Midnight Express, American Gigolo, Flashdance, The Never Ending Story, Thief of Hearts, Electric Dreams, Cat People, Over the Top and Scarface. In 2002, he wrote the score for Leni Riefenstahl's final film, Impressionen unter Wasser, a marine documentary.

Lesser known is that Moroder wrote the official theme songs, "Reach Out", for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and "Hand in Hand", for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and "Un'estate italiana" for the 1990 Football World Cup. "The Chase" is now also used as the theme bumper-music for the US AM talk radio program Coast to Coast AM.

On 20 September 2004 Moroder was honored at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony, held in New York, when he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements and contributions as producer. In 2005, he was given the title of Commendatore by the then President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

01. I Wanna Rock You02. E=Mc203. From Here To Eternity04. Faster Than The Speed Of Love05. Lost Angeles06. Utopia - Mi Giorgio07. From Here To Enternity08. First Hand Experience09. I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone10. Too Hot To Handle11. Knights In White Satin12. In The Middle Of The Knight13. Knights In White Satin14. Oh, L'amour15. Sooner Or Later16. I Wanna Funk With You Tonight

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Juan Atkins (born December 9, 1962) is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. The three attended high school together in Belleville, Michigan, near Detroit. As the son of a concert promoter, Juan Atkins learned how to play bass, drums, and "a little lead guitar" at an early age. Atkins, along with school friends Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, tuned in regularly to WGPR to hear DJ Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson's genre-defying radio show.

At age sixteen, Atkins heard electronic music for the first time, which would prove to be a life-changing experience. In late-1990s interviews, he recalls the sound of synthesizers as being like "UFOs landing." He abandoned playing funk bass and bought his first analogue synthesizer, a Korg MS10, and began recording with cassette decks and a mixer for overdubs.He subsequently taught Derrick May to mix, and the pair started doing DJ sets together as Deep Space. They took their long mixes to Mojo, who began to play them on his show in 1981. Atkins, May, and Saunderson would continue to collaborate as Deep Space Soundworks, even starting a club in downtown Detroit for local DJs to spin and collaborate.

At Community College Atkins met Rick Davis, synthesizer expert and fellow Electrifyin' Mojo devotee -- Davis had even released an experimental record used by Mojo to open his radio show. The two began recording as Cybotron and released their first single, "Alleys of Your Mind," in 1981 on their own Deep Space Records. The clever balance of urban groove and synthesizer futurism signaled the new electro wave in black music "Alleys of Your Mind" got immediate play from Electrifyin' Mojo and became a big local hit, even though most listeners had no idea it was recorded in Detroit, or America for that matter. The 1982 single "Cosmic Cars" also did well, and Cybotron recorded their debut album, Enter. Then the group signed a deal with Fantasy Records to reissue the album.

One track, "Clear," was a quasi-instrumental which set the blueprint for what would later be called techno. Instead of merely reworking elements of Kraftwerk into a hip-hop context (which proved the basis for many electro tracks), "Clear" was a balanced fusion of techno-pop and club music. Unfortunately, competing visions for the future of the group forced Atkins to leave the group by 1983. Atkins considered Cybotron's most successful single, "Techno City" (1984), to be a unique, synthesized funk composition. After later hearing Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" (1982), which he considered to be a superior example of the electro funk style he was aiming for, he resolved to continue experimenting, and encouraged Saunderson and May to do the same.

Atkins began recording as "Model 500" in 1985 and founded the Metroplex label. His friends Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson all recorded singles on the label. Atkins' first single as Model 500, "No UFOs," was a hit in Detroit and Chicago.Later Metroplex singles like "Night Drive," "Interference," and "The Chase" also sold well and set the template for Detroit techno; moody and sublime machine music, earning him the nickname "the godfather of techno."

Over the years, Atkins has also released works under the name Infiniti. He explained the difference in a 2007 interview: "Model 500 is really a continuation of Cybotron. That's one thing that I've always stayed the course with and I've always wanted to not deviate when I do stuff with Model 500. In the past year it's probably what Cybotron would have done had the partners not split. Its more song-oriented with melodies, not just dance track - that's always been my experiences with Model 500. Now if I do stuff under the name Infinity, that would be the more straightforward form of pure techno, the purest techno what is deemed as techno right now in North America and in Europe."

Europe were quick to take up the cause of championing Detroit's techno elite. First, the Belgian R&S Records began releasing stellar work by a cast of techno inheritors including New Yorker Joey Beltram and Europeans C.J. Bolland and Speedy J. By 1993, Berlin's Tresor Records had picked up the baton as well, Atkins visited the label's studio in 1993 and worked with 3MB, the in-house production team of Thomas Fehlmann and Moritz Von Oswald. He returned to Berlin 2 years later to begin recording what was, surprisingly, his first album since the days of Cybotron. Mid-1995, R&S released the debut Model 500 album, Deep Space; aswell as a rerelease of Classics, a crucial compilation of Model 500's best Metroplex singles output. Another retrospective, Tresor's Infiniti Collection, traced Atkins' work as recorded from 1991 to 1994.

Several years passed before he released any additional material, but it came with a rush during 1998-1999. First in September 1998, Tresor released an album of new Infiniti recordings named Skynet. One month later, the American label Wax Trax! released a Juan Atkins mix album. The second full Model 500 album, Mind and Body, was released in 1999 on R&S. Atkins remained active throughout the early 2000s. He put together Classics (2002), a mixed compilation of Metroplex highlights. An album of new productions, The Berlin Sessions, came out through Tresor, and so did the double-disc 20 Years Metroplex. Both of them were released in 2005.